University Hardship Fund

The TLC University Hardship Fund is sponsored by the Tender Loving Care (TLC) Brigade and coordinated through the OEA. We recognize that faculty and staff may experience hardships that require emergency financial assistance. The Hardship Fund is a program available to assist eligible faculty and staff who are experiencing a “qualified” emergency and who have exhausted all avenues for obtaining assistance. The program is designed to address an event or catastrophe that is non-recurring, sudden, unexpected, and critical, such as but not limited to the following:

Acute illness of a faculty or staff member, or of an immediate family member. (i.e., unexpected, sudden and temporary – not chronic like diabetes or hypertension) as defined by FIU’s Bereavement Leave policy: https://policies.fiu.edu/.

There have been a number of instances over the years in which such a source of assistance would have been of great help to faculty and staff. For the past two years we have had the TLC Brigade Food Bank which has helped more than 100 people with emergency food assistance. Here are a few comments from that effort (names not revealed for confidentiality):

Thank you so much! My daughter has been sick so I am taking care of her and my grandchildren while working full time. This will help a lot!Anonymous

Thank you for the help. I’ve always loved FIU because we are like a family here. This will help my family and me get through a hard time.Anonymous